Nazi Hunter Honored by France

by MARILYN AUGUST,
Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) -- Serge Klarsfeld, a Nazi hunter who refuses to let France forget its Holocaust victims, on Tuesday was named Officer of the Legion of Honor -- the nation's highest award.

Klarsfeld, 65, has crisscrossed the globe tracking down Nazis. His books were among the first to recount France's sordid role in the deportation of Jews during World War II. He has lobbied successfully on behalf of Jewish Holocaust orphans.

''Each of your battles has been waged in the memory of your father and all the victims of the Holocaust, which you miraculously escaped,'' President Jacques Chirac told a ceremony at the Elysee palace.

Klarsfeld was only 8 when his father was arrested, deported and died in Auschwitz. Serge, his mother and sister escaped the raid by hiding in a closet.

''Klarsfeld is a man who is deeply committed to justice, a tireless human rights advocate,'' [*] said Chirac, underlining Klarsfeld's ''particularly important'' role in preparing the complex legal cases against French wartime militia chief Paul Touvier and Vichy police official Maurice Papon.

A member of the government-appointed commission established to study the confiscation of Jewish assets during the war, Klarsfeld has compiled comprehensive lists of the names, addresses, convoy number and date of deportation of every Jew shipped from France to Nazi death camps.

* Left: Professor Robert Faurisson "Someone who has provoked the Jewish community for years should expect this sort of thing." -Serge Klarsfeld, as quoted in Toronto Globe and Mail, September 18, 1989, issue, condoning the savage, near-fatal beating inflicted on Professor Robert Faurisson while strolling through a city park near his home in Vichy, France.